


Paradise's Law

by marcelo



Category: Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)
Genre: F/M, Post-Episode: s02e11-12 A Better World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 10:29:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17558681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marcelo/pseuds/marcelo
Summary: Power isn't sweet; dominion is a banquet of ashes, and the cost of saving the world was something more precious than their lives.





	Paradise's Law

**Author's Note:**

> Twelve short bits, each one titled after the first line of each book of _Paradise Lost_.

**Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree**

She loves Clark. She also knows that an affair for passion's sake would be as alien to Batman's nature as anything could be. Whatever the reasons for this thing they are doing, love isn't one of them.

Superman will know. Both of them are aware of that. Bruce's aims are cryptic as usual, but Lois hopes that this will finally make Clark understand the obscenity of _his_ betrayal.

Or maybe make him kill her. She always knew there was a chance she would outlive her husband, but didn't expect for it to happen while his body was still flying around.

**High on a Throne of Royal State**

Diana stops talking when she realizes that he isn't listening to her. He is looking intently at the Watchtower's floor, as tense as she has ever seen him. 

"Kal?" His shoulder under her hand feels as unbreakable as Prometheus' chains.

He draws a sudden breath and closes his fists. "Bruce," he snarls silently.

"I'm fine, Diana. Go on." His voice is cold and angry, and anybody but a warrior would have flinched at hearing it. Diana evenly continues her report.

His eyes are still glued to the floor, or rather to something beyond it. The Watchtower continues its serene orbit.

**Hail holy light, offspring of Heav'n first-born**

"You are pregnant," he announces over dinner.

Lois lets a second pass as she processes it. It was just yesterday - but of course he could know. She takes another spoonful of soup and asks as carelessly as she can fake, "Boy or girl."

Superman frowns, dutifully focusing his vision at the molecular level. "Girl."

"Good," she says. "I think we should call her Martha."

He almost flinches, and knows she can see it. "Why, Lois? Why him?"

She looks at his eyes and answers truthfully. "I would have done it with Luthor, but he's dead."

They eat in silence.

**O For that warning voice, which he who saw Th' Apocalyps, heard cry in Heaven aloud**

There are new devices in the Cave. Interdimensional technology, perhaps, but nothing he is familiar with. Bruce has been a busy bat.

"I could kill you, Bruce." It feels less a threat that a well-meaning warning, and he can see Batman's eighth-of-an-smile. He realizes he had missed it. Coordinating their oversight of the world had proved to be almost a holiday to a man of Bruce's resources and energy.

Perhaps, he muses, that was part of the problem. Bruce never took well to holidays.

"Noted. Anything else, Superman?"

Destroying the Cave would be petty, he reminds himself. "Not yet."

**Now Morn her rosie steps in th' Eastern Clime Advancing**

The weeks pass by in the quiet rhythm of their work. Weapon stockpiles are located and destroyed, a task that requires focus and care. Industries and utilities are upgraded. Cities around the world start looking more like Metropolis.

It's Batman's idea. Higher standards of living might ease the constant undercurrent of tension.

"At least the trains work on time," people comment with knowing glances.

They know that he could be listening at any time, although they don't know that he always is. They sound more betrayed than afraid, especially in Metropolis.

He starts thinking of them as "humans." That helps.

**All night the dreadless Angel unpursu'd Through Heav'ns wide Champain held his way**

He takes a few weeks off planet to "mend the fences." It was something his father had once taught him; mend the fences _before_ something comes in.

He kills Darkseid and Starro, and sends Metallo into a black hole. 

He is almost disappointed when he returns to a planet still under the Lords' protection. He is outright surprised that none of them (Batman) has staged a coup against him.

Lois is showing, and Bruce visits her often for tea.

They don't do anything but talk. They know that he is listening all the time, but _he_ knows that isn't why.

**Descend from Heav'n Urania**

"Almerac royalty often has twins. I only need one, and you will also need an heir."

It's the first time that Maxima has approached him with anything resembling an argument. He wonders why Batman put her up to this. It's not as if he is likely to die any time soon. And the world _is_ , almost, quiet.

Would it still be quiet after they let it alone?

What does "temporary measures" mean for people like them?

Lois' kid is almost a month old now. 

Should they start training her as Robin? They will need a new Batman someday.

 _Somebody_ has to scheme against him.

**The Angel ended, and in Adams Eare So Charming left his voice, that he a while Thought him still speaking, still stood fixt to hear**

It wasn't Jimmy's fault. Of all people, Jimmy was still the one who believed in him the most. Curiously, not because he was his pal Superman, but because he was Clark Kent. Good old Clark.

"If he killed Luthor" -nobody else says 'if', and Superman often feels like asking him why he does- "he must have had a good reason."

Still, it was a damned inconvenient thing to publish. That Bruce had helped him run around his content controls, and that Jimmy had meant well, didn't make it less so.

"SUPERMAN'S SON," read the headline. Byline by Editor James Olsen.

**No more of talk where God or Angel Guest With Man**

There is talk of statues of him. _Spontaneous_ talk. Questions about thrones (gold? blue? green, in defiance? of pure fire, in flaunting?). References to his Arctic Palace.

 _Fortress of Solitude_ , he wants to scream for the world to hear. He could, but they wouldn't listen. Since the news about "his" son, they no longer treat him as a despot, but as an -unloved, sometimes- king. He could assert time and again that it isn't his goal, that dynasty is as far from his desires as power itself, but he knows how little good that would do.

He feels lonely everywhere.

**Meanwhile the hainous and despightfull act Of Satan done in Paradise**

"Don't pretend you love her, Bruce. She is only a pawn in your sick game with Superman."

His persona would require him to smile coldly, but he cannot summon the will. "I've done nothing but reinforce his power, Lois." It is a transparently empty, utilitarian lie, and he wishes not for the first time that they could have something more.

Lois scoffs, still nursing Martha. "Go away."

He leaves, not bothering trying to convince Lois that he does love both Martha and her. He does, but love had nothing to do with this.

Love never had anything to do with saving the world.

**Thus they in lowliest plight repentant stood Praying**

His voice rang hollow in the Cave, speaking for a lonely god in his Arctic retreat.

"We both know you can't play king, Clark, and you won't convince them not to see you as one."

He paused as if listening to a far away answer. "It would've happened in a human generation anyway. I just made it happen sooner."

He sighed, and said the hardest thing of them all. "I'm sorry, Clark."

**As one who in his journey bates at Noone, Though bent on speed**

He chooses noon to do it. Bruce is obviously aware of what's happening, but he stays above in the Manor, tickling Martha until she laughs. It's either a goodbye gift or a goodbye jab - most likely both. 

He had sought exile off-planet, but wherever he went armies had been waiting for him. Ready to stop him or -infinitely more disturbingly- ready to be led by him to bloody victory.

He breathes deeply, chooses a world at random and steps through Batman's interdimensional gate. Somewhere there might be a world where he can be Superman again.

Somewhere he can let Luthor live.


End file.
